POLITICS: Trump offers food-stamp relief to Dems’ hostages — as the shutdown nears record length

President Donald Trump moved Monday to blunt the pain Democrats are inflicting on food-stamp families with their government shutdown, which will be the longest ever if it continues through Wednesday.

Rather than cut off payments after the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program ran out of cash this weekend, Trump & Co. will cover at least partial benefits, using money from a contingency fund meant for food during natural disasters.

The president doesn’t want to see the 42 million Americans who depend on food stamps have to struggle any more than necessary — plus, as ever, he’s complying with valid court orders directing the payments to continue (even if the judges in question are likely to be overruled by higher courts).

“President Trump wants to make sure that people get their food benefit,” noted Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Sunday.

Last week, Trump himself said on Truth Social that if the courts provide legal direction, “it will BE MY HONOR to provide the funding” for food-stamp benefits.

But make no mistake: Dems are still holding SNAP recipients hostage; the partial payments will only cover 50% of their usual benefits, leaving them painfully short. And they can expect significant delays in getting even that.

Democrats openly admit they care more about forcing Republicans to spend an extra $1.5 trillion on various bailouts than on reopening the government.

This “is one of the few leverage times we have,” confesses House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (Mass.).

If “you reopen the government . . . we lose our leverage,” warns Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

Sorry, but shutting the government was never meant to be a tool used to force the other side to pass massive new legislation.

Democrats would be howling if Republicans used the filibuster to pull such a stunt; indeed in past shutdown fights they’ve relentlessly condemned the GOP for not agreeing to a “clean” stopgap-spending bill exactly like the one Dems now keep blocking.

It’s beyond pathetic that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer feels compelled to appease their party’s deranged base with this nonsense.

Too bad for SNAP families.

And federal workers, like air-traffic controllers, who aren’t being paid.

And airline passengers plagued with delays as some controllers stay home.

Trump is right to say he “won’t be extorted.” If you give in to hostage-taking today, you’ll only see more of it tomorrow. And this not how democracy is supposed to work, though we guess it’s the “democracy” Democrats keep insisting they’re fighting for.

Average Americans should make sure that no Democratic lawmaker who shut down the government ever gets their vote again.